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| TED Android App |
I’m a huge fan of TED Talks. I don’t know too many people who aren’t
fans of the service, and I’m jealous of my friends who managed to find
time to make it out when there was a TEDx event at my alma mater.
That being said, there might be some of you who don’t watch TED
videos or listen to TED podcasts. Heaven forbid, but maybe you’ve never
actually heard of it. The TED app on Android might be the perfect way to get into it. Read on for our full review.
What is TED?
Just in case you aren’t familiar with it, it’s probably wise to go
over what TED is and what makes it awesome. TED is basically a
non-for-profit organization that makes inspirational and
thought-provoking videos available, for free, every week.
According to TED’s About page,
there are more than 1400 videos currently available. No matter how you
slice it, you won’t be able to catch up. But a lot of the talks are
really interesting. TED also curates some playlists, to make it easy to
find videos that might interest you. Part of my work involves design, so
I love this playlist about design called The artist is in.
I’ve seen some really cool videos about psychology and improving your
life on TED, and always end up checking out the service when I’m having
a rough day. Writing this review was, in some ways, pretty challenging
because I just wanted to keep on watching videos.
The Android App
TED wants to make sure that all their videos are viewable on any
device, so you can get their official app right on Google Play for both
your phone and tablet. It’s a great way to get introduced to TED, and if
you’ve never watched any TED videos, you should check it out right
away.
Ted’s Android app has a customized interface for touch screens.
But if you watch TED videos all the time, you either already have
this app — or maybe you had no idea and I’m blowing your mind. Let’s
take a look at the app and compare it to TED’s already-excellent
website.
The App
Whenever I sit down to review an app, I have to stop and think. What
is an app trying to achieve? Does it include all the services that I
think are necessary for mobile use cases, or is it missing something? Of
course, that’s an app’s design philosophy. It’s one thing to say that
an app is well-designed, but in the end, a good design doesn’t go very
far if it doesn’t translate into a powerful user experience.
The app does have some charms.
The TED app is well-designed, by any standard. It’s easy to navigate
on phones and tablets — it’s particularly a joy on my Nexus 7. I like
the tablet’s widescreen display for TED videos; it works very well and
it looks great.
Video looks great, especially on the Nexus 7.
And navigating the app couldn’t be easier. Newcomers to TED Talks
won’t have a problem making their way through the app, but members of
the TED community might instinctively notice that some of their
favourite features on the website are missing.
Member Login, Nada
The most disappointing thing to me about TED is that I can’t log in
with my User ID and begin commenting, bookmarking and favouriting videos
like I do on the website. Of course, I can bookmark videos within the
app — handy, to be sure — but I can’t bookmark them across devices.
So if I want to start a video on my Nexus 7 and finish it on my
MacBook, I better remember where I was when I get back to my computer
because there’s no way to bookmark a video for reference. That means
there’s also no way to pause my video on one device and continue it from
another, à la Netflix.
I
couldn’t start the video above on my Nexus 7, save my place, and resume
it from my Nexus 4. So I just started watching something else.
That doesn’t even introduce bigger problems, like a lack of comments.
Say what you will about comments on the Internet, but a lot of people
on TED are interested in sharing a real intelligent opinion. And they’re
a good read. I rarely contribute, but I do find the chatter interesting
— and I can’t say that for a place like YouTube.
But mostly, the app isn’t a truly horizontal experience. Horizontal
experiences work well across multiple platforms. While the app is
well-designed as far as an interface goes, and I enjoy using it, any
bookmarking I do effectively traps me within a single device. And when
we live in a multi-device world, that’s a problem.
A Huge Disclaimer
Now, TED isn’t exactly interested in providing the service that I
would like them to, or they don’t seem to be. And I’m not trying to be
ungrateful; after all, it is free and this might be the best quality
free product on the Web.
TED’s solution is to let you download any video you like straight to your device.
The website doesn’t exactly do everything I wish it did either,
unless you’re within a playlist. For some reason, if you’re in a
playlist, you can bookmark the exact second of the video you’re paused
in for reference later. You can’t, however, do the same thing with just a
regular TED video.
What I’d like to see from TED costs money in server space and it
costs a lot of programming time. Services like this are always expensive
and very difficult to perfect. But in a perfect world, wouldn’t it be
nice to start a TED Talk on one device and continue it on another? I can
barely sit still for five minutes before something comes up, and I
don’t even have kids yet. It would be a useful featureset for everybody.
The Bottom Line
As it is, I heartily recommend the TED Android app for a couple
reasons: it is well-designed and very easy to navigate. I think most
people who watch TED Videos would love it. I really like watching videos
on the app, and think it has a great interface. Besides, you can’t
discount the quality of TED itself.
But the problem is that it still feels pretty stark. Why can’t I
bookmark videos across devices? Why can’t I save my place across
devices? Why can’t I mark a video as a Favourite across devices? And I
really wish I could sign in and leave a comment on a video, or at least
read through some comments. What makes the situation more irritating is
that the potential for TED is there. TED could be a leader in this category. Instead, the app feels a few generations behind.
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